


throw me into the deep end

by lydiasage



Category: SKAM (TV)
Genre: M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-10
Updated: 2017-10-15
Packaged: 2019-01-15 15:01:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12323367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lydiasage/pseuds/lydiasage
Summary: AU where everyone is a little lost in life. Isak and Even find meaning in each other.





	1. Chapter 1

Isak knew it wasn’t healthy. The way he was living his life, that is. Between school and work he hardly got a moment for himself, let alone time to spend with his friends or family. This week he worked every day after his classes, late into the night at the corner grocery store just down the street from the apartment he shared with Eskild. Luckily it was only a 10 or so minute walk home, but every night when he arrived he was dead on his feet; sometimes falling asleep in the middle of assignments he was trying to finish for the next day. 

It wasn’t even something he needed to be doing. He was grateful for the money, but at this point he had enough saved up that cutting his hours back a little would do no harm. It was probably doing more harm than good anyway, his grades were decent but they weren’t as good as they could be which he definitely had to be careful about or he’ll lose his scholarship at the University of Olso. 

All this leads to Isak asking his boss, a tiny snow-white haired woman named Elsa Enstad, if it would be possible to take on less shifts. Elsa had reminded Isak of the doting grandmother he’d never had but was much sweeter about the whole situation than even he had expected. 

“I wondered when you were going to bring it up, child!” She patted him gently on the cheek with a hand that always seemed to be cold. “Working so much, it isn’t healthy for a young man like you, you need to be out and about having fun!” 

“Maybe spend some time with that beautiful girl of yours,” Elsa gave him a wink as he smiled politely, knowing it was useless to argue. 

The girl Elsa was referring to was Eva, who Isak agreed was very beautiful and also happened to be dating Jonas, one of his closest friends. Ever since she found out Isak worked at this specific grocery store she made sure to do all of her shopping there and tease Isak about never getting to see him enough. She came in often enough that Elsa recognized her and became convinced that she and Isak were perfect for each other. 

When he left work that day he felt refreshed. He stepped outside into the cool autumn air and for the first time in quite a while he saw everything around him. The orange and red leaves hanging delicately on the trees, the smallest gust of wind sending them swirling through the streets. 

Somehow on his walk home he found himself eyeing a tattoo parlor with interest. He’d never really thought of getting a tattoo himself, in general he didn’t know too much about art in the first place, let alone what he would deem worthy of inking on himself forever. But it wasn’t tattoos that caught his eye, or even the tattoo parlor itself actual, but a person inside. 

Through the glass window he could a beautiful blonde man, sitting at the front counter flipping through what was probably one of the artist’s profiles. Isak hesitated for a moment, he’d only caught a glimpse of this person and it was one of those passing “what if?” moments where you wonder what it would be like to know that stranger on the bus, in the store, that you passed on the street. Or in this case: peered at through the window of a tattoo parlor. 

Isak shook himself out of his thoughts of walking into the parlor, pretending to be interested in getting a tattoo, maybe getting the beautiful blonde boy’s number. That would be ridiculous and Isak wasn’t the type of person to pretend to be someone else just to get someone’s attention. Even though he always claimed to be a good liar, he knew he wasn’t, as was usually the case when people said things like that. He could never pull it off. 

With one last admiring glance, Isak turns back down the street and continues home. Eskild will be happy to see him actually in the daylight for once.


	2. Chapter 2

Saturday morning had Isak in a panic. Normally he worked a shift earlier in the morning so when his alarm didn’t go off and he woke up naturally more towards noon it took a him a moment to remember he didn’t have any obligations. He threw his head back against hiss pillow and tried to relax his beating heart. The sad thing was that Elsa would probably have been a little upset at him missing a shift but not mad enough to warrant such anxiety from Isak. 

It always seemed to be like that with him; being overwhelmingly worried over situations that turn out completely fine. He couldn’t help it, he’s always been that way and he doubted it would ever change. Realistically he’s not sure if he’d even want it to, Isak’s always had the notion that the moment you get too comfortable is when you start making mistakes and he just couldn’t afford to live that way. As long as he worries he’s a more careful person and maybe that’s a fair enough trade. 

Grabbing his phone from his bedside table, Isak lazily messes around on social media before getting bored and answering some of his messages. 

 

He was more pleased than he cared to admit that Jonas never failed to invite him to things after Isak passed countless times. It was nice to know he still wanted to be around him despite Isak being such a lame friend sometimes. He really couldn’t have asked for a better friend, Jonas was really just a great fucking person and Isak was really lucky to know him. 

He wasn’t sure about a party thrown by drama students but at least he would get to hang and catch up with the boys. He missed Jonas the most but he had gotten a lot closer to Magnus and Mahdi over the years and it would be good to see them too, it had been over a month since he’d last seen them for more than 10 minutes. 

He also had a couple messages from his mother. 

 

He stared at them for a few minutes, debating if he should respond or not. What do you even say to that? He typed out a few responses but deleted them, “thanks, mamma” sounded too sarcastic, and anything else seemed to invite a conversation about God that Isak didn’t really want to have. Finally, he just settled on a simple heart emoji, sending it quickly and hoping that would be the end of it. 

He would need to visit her soon. After his father had left his mother during his first year, Isak had a really rough time dealing with his mother on his own. He didn’t know what what happening with her at the time but later she was diagnosed with schizophrenia and got the treatment she deserved. Most of it was thanks to his Aunt Margrete, his father’s sister. Even she was disgusted by her brother’s actions and how he deserted his family when they needed him most. She’s the one who took Isak’s mother to her doctor appointments, moved into Isak’s childhood home to take care of her, and basically uprooted her entire life for them. Isak never knew anyone could be that selfless. 

It was because of her that Isak wanted to be in a medical field one day. Seeing his mother struggle with her illness made him wish he was more equipped to help in some way. Of course was just a teenager at the time, it wasn’t his job and no one would have expected him to know what to do. That didn’t make him feel any better though. Since then he’s tried to learn as much as possible so he’ll never feel that helpless again. Combine that with his love of biology and science, becoming a doctor sounds perfect for Isak and in his two years of college so far he hasn’t regretted his choice once. When life gets really hard he knows it’s what he wants to do with his entire heart, sometimes he just needs a little reminding. 

\--

When Isak finally decides to get out of bed (Eskild really decides for him, knocking on his door with such persistence Isak couldn’t ignore him even if he wanted to), he’s fully rested and in a better mood than usual, although very hungry. Throwing on a sweater over his pajamas to keep him warm, he wanders into the kitchen to find something to eat. 

He finds Eskild sitting at their tiny kitchen table staring intently at his phone, pretending that he wasn’t about to break Isak’s door down just a few moments ago. 

“Good to see you’re alive, I was worried there for a moment.” He remarks without looking up from his phone.

Isak rolls his eyes as he opens the fridge, wrinkling his nose at how empty it is. 

“I won’t be much longer if I don’t eat something.” He says, hating the slight whine in his voice. 

Now it’s Eskild’d turn to roll his eyes, still messing around on his phone, “Isak, you literally work in a grocery store, how do you not keep the fridge stocked with things you want to eat? You need to take better care of yourself.” 

Isak doesn’t disagree but he still doesn’t want to hear it. He’s not in the mood to go shopping on his day off either. The refrigerator door swings shut as Isak turn around to face Eskild. 

“Wanna go out for lunch?” Isak asks with maybe a hint of pleading in his voice. That gets Eskild’s full attention. He doesn’t want to shop and he doesn’t want to cook and Eskild certainly isn’t going to do either for him, but he would really like the company.

“Isak, are you asking me out on a date? Oh, how romantic,” Eskild drawls, his eyes betraying his amusement. 

Isak just smiles, “I’ll pay?” 

Eskild lets out a put upon sigh, “Well, if you insist, little Isak. But I’ll have you know I have my sights set on someone so don’t try any funny business.” 

“Wouldn’t dream of it,” he deadpans, holding back a snort. 

Eskild gives him a testy look but stands up and stretches tall before pushing his chair in. 

“You’ve got 15 minutes to go change and make yourself look irresistible for all the cute boys we’re gonna see.” 

As if. Isak didn’t think the word ‘irresistible’ was meant to be uttered in even the same universe as him, let alone the same room. Nevertheless, after he pulled on some clean (ish) clothes he did spend an extra moment looking in the mirror. His hair was long enough that the curls were getting a little messy again and ran his hand through them, briefly wondering if he should try and tame them at least somewhat. He didn’t care that much though and figured a snapback would do the trick. As put together as he could manage in 15 minutes, he left his room before Eskild could start banging on his door for taking to long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so excited to post the next chapter!!!! please let me know what you think so far, i really would love to hear people's thoughts! also i apologize for the images within this chapter, i don't know how to make them smaller so they're easier to read...i'm kind of hopeless at that stuff! is it worth having them in there or so you think i should just write the messages out?


End file.
